Cheap Vehicle Tracking Systems

Running a business fleet in our green and pleasant land is now more expensive than ever. Did you know that in 2018, the price of diesel in the UK was the thirdhighest in the European Union? Petrol may have ranked a little better, but still went for a princely sum – the 12th highest in the EU, in fact.

It’s vitally important for business fleets to keep operational costs low – especially if you’re a new business that’s working to get established and grow.

Fortunately, though vehicle tracking systems may be instrumental to the smooth running of a fleet, they don’t actually have to cost the earth. That’s right – there are plenty of suppliers out there that provide great systems for even greater prices.

But who are these generous providers? And more importantly, who’s doing it best? Following an extensive deep-dive into the vehicle tracking market, we can identify, rate, and compare the suppliers that are offering the best products for teeny tiny prices. Let’s get started!

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Time to crunch the numbers – which suppliers provide the best cheap vehicle tracking systems?

The best low-cost vehicle tracking systems

We researched the range of vehicle tracking suppliers available to UK businesses, and found that the cheapest vehicle tracking systems come from Movolytics, Quartix, RAM Tracking, and Vodafone Automotive. Let's find out why.

Movolytics

Best for cutting your fuel costs

Movolytics may be cheap, but with this vehicle tracking system, you’ll get a fair amount of bang for your buck – in our analysis, it scored 9 out of 10 for its tracking, driver management, and vehicle management capabilities.

In particular, we’re impressed by how simple Movolytics makes cutting your fuel costs. Its patented tech gathers accurate data on fuel usage, carbon emissions, and RPM straight from each vehicle’s engine, and tells you how much money your fleet’s wasting on fuel – that’s information you can act on! But we also approve of what Movolytics doesn’t do: it won’t charge any installation fees, and won’t spring any hidden charges on you either.

Movolytics’ pricing

The only supplier of its kind that doesn’t use GPS tracking, instead pulling instant, more accurate info directly from the vehicle itself

Tracks 150+ driving behaviours to calculate drivers’ safety scores

X Cons:

No free trial, so you can’t try before you buy

Only releases a product update once per year

Does not provide theft prevention measures or theft alerts

Quartix

Best for great customer support

When it comes to stellar customer support, Quartix is second to none – indeed, it scored an impressive 9 out of 10 on this front during our analysis. Its large customer service team is dedicated to answering users’ questions, and the company offers multiple installation options – meaning you can have the system set up at a time of your choosing, on your premises, by an accredited engineer, all for free.

Speaking of customer care, Quartix offers 12-month contracts only – nice and undaunting compared to those suppliers that demand three to five years of your custom. Plus, in giving you a choice between three tiers of service and offering a 30-day cancellation period, Quartix shows real flexibility as a provider.

Quartix’s pricing

Offers a free four-week trial, so you can test it out before committing

Provides excellent CO2 emissions reporting to help you monitor your fleet’s impact on the environment

Pricing is transparent – you won’t find any lurking hidden fees

X Cons:

The cheapest plan (Infopoint) comes with limited reporting features, and a slow data refresh time of two minutes

Doesn’t have a driver messaging system

Doesn’t provide theft prevention alerts

RAM Tracking

Best for cost management

RAM’s reporting is more limited than other suppliers’ – its driving style reports only analyse speed, for example, while others analyse speed, braking, acceleration, cornering, and more. But it can also do a few wonderful things that lots of other systems can’t – including crash reporting and CO2 emissions tracking (so you can keep your fleet safe and green).

In particular, the budget-savvy will be impressed by RAM’s financial reporting, which enables you to closely monitor the costs associated with each journey – from fuel cost expectations to driver travel time expenditure. A great feature for those who are looking to limit costs!

Vodafone Automotive

Best for only buying what you need

A longstanding giant in communications but a relative newcomer to the world of fleet management, Vodafone’s recent entry onto this market has got us excited. One of the things that stands out about the system is its modular structure – that is to say, its features are separated out into ‘modules’, and you’re able to pick and choose which modules your system is made up of.

If you want to monitor driving behaviour, for example, add the ‘Fleet Safety and Driving Style’ module. If you want dedicated accident management, add ‘Crash, Claims and Emergencies’, and so on. Unfortunately, we could only root out a price for this system’s most basic package – but £9 is certainly low enough for this up-and-coming offering to earn a spot on our list!

Modular structure could make this system difficult to set up, as modules must be coded in

Expert verdict

There you have it – our pick of the best cheap fleet tracking systems on the market. Movolytics comes out on top for fuel cost cutting, while Quartix absolutely shines for stellar customer support. Meanwhile, RAM Tracking can help you to closely monitor and reduce your fleet’s costs, while the customisability of Vodafone Automotive’s system means none of your money is wasted on features you don’t need.

So, what’s next? Below, we share some sage advice on choosing the right cheap vehicle tracking supplier for you. But if you’d like to start comparing your options straight away, why not let us help?

Take a minute to answer some quick questions about your fleet, and we’ll match you with the tracking suppliers that can best cater to your requirements. They’ll then provide you with free, no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to you, and the option to learn more about what they can offer you. Sound good? Get started here.

How to choose the right low-cost fleet tracking system

Before you start counting out the pennies for a cheap vehicle tracking system, you need to compare your options and make sure you’ve plumped for the right one – cheapest isn’t always best, and every system is different.

To help you, we’ve put together three questions to ask that will help you avoid the most common pitfalls for first-time vehicle tracking users:

1) Is it flexible?

Before you start leasing your cheap fleet tracking system, you’ll need to dive into the depths of the small print, and examine how much wiggle room the contract will give you.

What do we mean by that? Well, if your fleet radically grows or shrinks, you’ll need to be able to adjust your system accordingly: that is, to quickly acquire more devices and sign up more drivers – or send back devices and remove user accounts – with minimal hassle. Will your contract allow this?

There’s a whole variety of other things to consider, too. What if you want to upgrade or downgrade to a different payment tier – will that be easy for you? And what if you choose to change suppliers completely? Will the contract length and cancellation policy make that difficult? Are there cancellation fees? Is there a ‘buy-out’ option?

2) Is it future-proof?

Forget how fun Marty McFly made it seem – when it comes to your business, you can’t afford to get stuck in the past.

Vehicle tracking tech is getting better – and cheaper – every year. But even though a deal might look good at first, low fees can sometimes come with long contracts that’ll saddle you with outdated, static technology for a number of years… which is never fun.

So, before you sign, make sure you’ll have the option to upgrade your software and devices if and when you need to. You might also choose to go for a supplier that can give you a short contract which offers more frequent opportunities to review or change the service you’re getting.

Other than Vodafone, which doesn’t appear to have finalised a standard contract length yet, all of the suppliers on this list offer contracts of 12 months. By industry standards, this is nice and short – so you shouldn’t go far wrong with them.

3) Is it feature-rich?

It may seem like an obvious one, but it can actually be really easy to forget the features – especially if you’re preoccupied with price. As with many things, you get what you pay for – and the more features you want from your vehicle tracking system, the more it’ll cost you.

You should definitely only pay for the features you really need. On the flipside of that, though, you shouldn’t forgo the features that could really help boost your operations in favour of a lower price.

If you’re looking for a featureful system with a variety of advanced capabilities and in-depth reporting, you’ll need to spend a bit more. Samsara’s prices, for example, reach £23.75 per vehicle, per month (plus hardware costs) – but it is a sophisticated system. Similarly, Verizon Connect charges between $50 and $250 per vehicle, per month, in exchange for a fantastically feature-rich product.

4) Our bonus question: Is there a faster way to do all this research?

And our answer: Yes! We can help you find the right cheap vehicle tracking system for you, and fast.

Simply answer a few questions about your fleet, and we’ll then match you with the UK suppliers that best fit your business’s unique needs. They’ll contact you with personalised, no-obligation quotes, and further information about what their service can offer you. This matchmaking service is fast, free, and easy – why not give it a go?

FAQs

Can I get a free vehicle tracking system anywhere?

We hate to break it to you, but… no! The closest you’ll get is a month-long free trial so you can test the product before you start forking out, but not all suppliers offer this. In some cases, companies might offer the software for free, but charge big fees for the hardware – basically, you’ll always need to pay something.

Of course, it has to be said that Google Maps does offer a very basic, free solution for small-scale vehicle tracking, which can be a good way to dip your toes into the world of GPS technology. But trust us – it’s not a feasible option for any (even remotely) ambitious business.

Where can I find more information about vehicle tracking costs?

It doesn’t just come down to one monthly price. Some vehicle tracking suppliers might also charge setup fees, hardware costs, termination charges, and more. And then there’s the question of whether you plan to lease the system – incurring that monthly cost – or buy it outright, forking over a big sum in one go.

You’ll find a detailed explanation of all of these considerations and more in our comprehensive guide to vehicle tracking costs. Be sure to check it out if you want to stay cost-savvy!

How we Analyse and Rate Vehicle Tracking Providers

At Expert Market, it's our aim to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date, and transparent product and service reviews possible. So, to help you better understand the best vehicle tracking options out there, we've conducted in-depth, extensive research into the vehicle tracking market and its top companies. Here's how we did it:

We worked with 2 independent researchers…

…who surveyed 200 companies like yours, gaining insight into what they want most from vehicle tracking…

…and rated each provider based on 500 different areas of investigation – covering everything including customer support, key features, prices, add-ons, and more.

We take the integrity of our research seriously. If you've got any questions at all about our research process, feel free to get in touch with Julia, our vehicle tracking specialist, at julia.watts@expertmarket.co.uk.

Specializing in business energy, fleet management and fuel cards, Julia’s here to help your company power up and get on the move. Having spent years working in the dynamic world of startup entrepreneurship, she loves creating content that might help exciting ventures, big or small, to flourish.